🔗 Share this article

Put aside poor conditions. For now, the surface isn't ready.

As NHL players gearing up to make a comeback to the Olympic Games for the initial occasion in more than a decade, building work on the main hockey arena for the Milan-Cortina Games is cutting it close.

Local organizers confirmed on Wednesday that the primary test event for the 16,000-seat Santagiulia arena originally planned for December has been relocated to a smaller arena – and that no additional trial has been scheduled yet.

The issue raises the prospect that there might not be a game held in the main arena until the competition begins for the women’s preliminary round at the Olympics on 5 February – 24 hours before the inaugural event.

“The timeline will be extremely tight to the start of the games, the timeline is very tight. However, we were aware,” Milan-Cortina local organizing committee CEO Andrea Varnier stated recently.

The competition that was intended to evaluate the Santagiulia playing surface was a segment of the under-20 world championship from 8-14 December. That event has been moved to the Rho Fair hockey venue, which is being set up inside a giant convention center on Milan’s outskirts and will stage secondary matches during the games.

Usually, new Olympic venues are trialled at least the year before to holding medal events. And with a large hockey venue, it’s not just about the playing surface and making sure that the playing surface is ready and secure. It’s also about checking food outlets, bathrooms and all other amenities inside a newly constructed modern arena.

This new facility, which is being built by a private company, is scheduled to become Italy’s largest indoor arena. For after the Olympics, it’s being eyed as a potential future host of the ATP Finals tennis event.

Despite the postponements and worries, high-priced passes are already being sold for events at the Santagiulia arena. Tickets for the men’s gold medal final on 22 February – the closing day of the Olympics – are going for as much as €1,400 (over $1,600). This exceeds for any other athletic competition at the Milano Cortina Games. Solely passes for the opening and closing ceremonies are priced higher.

The comeback of NHL players at the Olympics was revealed in February of last year, with the world’s top hockey league permitting its players to participate in the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

The men’s Olympic hockey competition is scheduled to take place from 11-22 February. The women’s tournament runs from 5-19 February.